Did you know that caffeine is contained in many different foods and not just in coffee?
· Filtered coffee (125ml) 85mg
· Espresso (30ml) 60mg
· Soluble instant coffee (125ml) 65mg
· Black Tea (150ml) 30mg
· Green tea (150ml) 20mg
· Coke (330ml) 40mg
· Energy drinks (330mg) 80mg
· Dark chocolate (30g) 60mg
· Milk chocolate (30g) 6mg
What is caffeine? Caffeine is a stimulant drug, which means it speeds up the messages travelling between the brain and the body. How I like to explain it: caffeine exaggerates the stress response in the body.
Not everyone reacts to caffeine in the same way. Numbers of factors can influence caffeine metabolism such as age, weight, liver disease, smoking (smokers are less sensitive to caffeine), pregnancy (pregnant women are more sensitive) and genetics.
PROS: Caffeine can improve memory, decrease fatigue, and improve your mental functioning. Researchers say, it may help prevent type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and liver disease. Caffeine is also useful for exercise performance: it can increase the body's ability to burn fat, increase muscle activation, increase thermogenesis, which helps you burn more calories and spare glycogen stores (our carb stores) primarily due to increased fat burning, which can enhance endurance performance.
CONS: caffeine can decrease the amount of sleep, increase anxiety, increase blood pressure and heart rate and can cause headaches. Caffeine can also interfere with digestion by increasing acidity in the stomach, causing heartburn. Caffeine is a diuretic, which means that increases urinary output and cause dehydration; caffeine in women has also been shown to decrease bone mineral density and increase risk of osteoporosis.
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